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One of the great features of cool season vegetables, the ones that survive the frosts and freezes of fall and early winter here in the Southeastern US, is that they are not space-hogs.

Red Russian kale might get to be pretty big (two to three feet across and high), but it isn’t going to sprawl across ten feet of garden the way a tomato plant can, and it won’t tower so high — like corn or okra — that it casts shade on the whole rest of the garden.

Even better, a lot of the cool season crops are in the “cut-and-come-again” group of leafy greens. You can harvest some leaves, and the plants will keep producing. The plants might stop for a while during cold weather, but in the warm stretches between, they will continue to grow.

Here in my zone 7b garden, I have already started a few seeds for my fall garden. The first little batch of seeds includes some kale, collards, beets, winter radishes, and some green bunching onions. In a couple of weeks, I will start a little more of all of those, plus some lettuces.

National Garden Bureau has named (with help from the American Rose Society) 2017 the Year of the Rose. It is also the year of the Pansy, the Daffodil, and the Brassica.

My yard would be short of one whole category of plant in the big celebrations, but the good people at Weeks Roses have provided a great rose for me to grow this year.

They might not have let me have the little plant if they had known how many rose bushes have died in my yard in the past.

However, I currently am the proud caretaker of an actual, living, Edith’s Darling Rose, one of a series of roses named for characters from the TV series Downton Abbey.

I acquired the little plant last fall, and it lived through the winter. The leaves look green and healthy, and the plant is making a few, sweetly-scented, amazing flowers.

Of course, the real measure of success in keeping this little plant alive comes toward the end of August. Summers in Georgia can be hard on roses. The humidity is worse than the heat. Dampness in the air means that leaves stay wet for a long time after a rain. Long-term dampness makes it easy for plant diseases to take hold.

If all goes well, though, the rose bush will thrive. It is a hybrid shrub rose that should reach a mature size of about 2-to-3 feet in all dimensions, be somewhat disease resistant, and not get the “leggy” look that some roses do. In other words, it could be perfect for a small garden.

Back in 2014, UGA’s Dr. Jean Woodward wrote about finding the first case of Boxwood Blight in Atlanta. Gardeners and landscapers who have followed that story have been taking the warnings about this plant disease seriously.

However, following sanitation guidelines to avoid spreading the disease, and then destroying any infected plants, is not convenient. These steps aren’t especially easy, either.

In yards and gardens that have been affected by this blight, alternative plants that can fill the same role are needed. Replanting more boxwood in those empty spaces is not a good idea!

UGA’s publication “Think Outside the Boxwood” (original link to webpage for this no longer works) lists some planting options to consider and some to avoid. The publication includes photos of some of the examples. These give readers an idea of how the substitutions could change the look of the landscape.

In a formal setting, such as a knot garden, the alternate plants may bring a whole new look. Can you imagine the knot as a string of Purple Pixie loropetalum twined with Pineapple guava? Or a string of upright Plum Yew with a spreading holly fern?

Those who love formal, clipped-boxwood hedges might not love some of the alternatives, but there is plenty of room for creativity, and there are some small-leaved, compact options (like the yaupon hollies) that can bring a close-enough appearance to the beloved knot. The substitutions may seem strange now, but they are are a good option for helping to reduce the spread of boxwood blight in Atlanta.

Plenty of gardeners in North Georgia wait until after mid-April to begin planting vegetable crops, but anyone who is a bit impatient can plant some radish seeds now.

Radishes grow best in the cooler weather of early spring, and they are ready to harvest just 4-5 weeks after they are planted. This makes radishes a great little crop to start the gardening year. Success comes so soon!

It used to be that most radish seeds in the garden centers and catalogues produced radishes that were just round and red.

Now, though, a whole range of colors and shapes are available, which makes pulling the little roots up at harvest time a great adventure. The same patch of garden that grew the pink and white (almost hidden under the pink) radishes in the picture also gave us purple, red, and yellow (!) radishes. All were delicious.

People who are Not From Around Here sometimes refer to radishes as a foolproof crop. I remember, when I first moved to Georgia, reading in more than one book/document, that “anyone can grow radishes.” That statement may be true in a sense, but the red-clay soil that is the base of my garden did not make a radish crop for the first couple of years, no matter how many seeds I set into the ground.

If your garden has been thwarting your radish-dreams, do not despair. The yearly addition of composts and other amendments, and having the soil tested to find out exactly what is needed to balance the nutrients for vegetable production, will soon enough bring plenty of these little beauties to your springtime table.

The flowers pictured above were on a peach tree at the community garden on the grounds of a church in Marietta. I took the picture a couple of weeks ago, at the very end of February.

On warm-enough days, I sometimes take my lunch to eat at a picnic table by that garden. It isn’t too far from the office, and it is a beautiful place.

These flowers are beautiful, too, but I was not as happy to see them as I might have been in another spring.

The problem is that the flowers opened too soon, triggered, I would guess, by a February that felt a lot like April. Unfortunately, we are about to have two nights in a row of temperatures around 25 degrees F.

Even though bees and other tiny insects buzzed all around the open flowers, working their pollinator magic, the little fruits forming as a result of that work are at a high risk of damage from the impending cold. Apple and plum trees in my neighborhood have done the same thing, blooming too soon.

This is one of those times when I think of the poet Countee Cullen, and his poem that starts “I cannot hold my peace, John Keats; There never was a spring like this.” Of course, he meant it differently, but this definitely is a spring that I have not seen before.

One of my friends brought some arugula leaves to the office last week, to show me the many hundreds of aphids that were on them. The arugula is growing at a community garden that she had visited, and she had permission from the gardener to pick a few leaves.

Aphids on arugula, seen through a microscope. PHOTO/Amygwh

We slid the leaves under the microscope and could see that, while a whole lot of the aphids are alive and active (the green ones in the picture), some had been “parasitized” by a wasp.

That means that a little wasp had laid an egg inside the aphid, and the egg was developing into a new wasp.

The aphids that have a baby wasp inside are the puffed-up golden ones in the picture.

When each wasp-baby is mature, it will bust out of the aphid body, leaving behind an empty aphid shell.

Are images from “The Alien” movie flashing through your mind yet? Sometimes, real life is just as weird as science-fiction movies. This is part of what keeps gardening so engaging.

In organic gardening, knowing that there are predators and parasitic wasps around, waiting to take care of a pest problem, provides an odd kind of comfort. Unfortunately, though, even if a swarm of ladybugs (surprisingly effective predators on aphids) moves in to help the wasps clear up the aphid problem, this arugula is going to need a lot of washing before it is added to a salad.

This is an odd year weatherwise, though, so it looks as though more active steps will be needed in some gardens. The next suggestion is to blast the little plants with strong spray from a hose to knock the aphids off. The next after that is to try an insecticidal soap spray. In a dire emergency, try a veg-garden-pest spray that contains neem.

Of course, the very first thing to have done, if anyone could have foreseen the aphid disaster looming from back in the fall, would have been to cover the little crop with a spun rowcover to keep the aphids out completely.

Do you remember when you first figured out that some plants look great for only part of the year before looking as though they had died, but then they popped back up the very next year looking like nothing unusual had happened?

When I see daffodils, which do exactly that magic act, I remember talking (maybe 15 years ago) with a young guy about his new home and its great yard. He was very concerned that he had already killed some of his beautiful flowers.

We eventually figured out that his flowers were daffodils. The guy just had not yet learned that some flowers (like daffodils) come up early, bloom for a couple of weeks, and then begin to die back for the year. At that time in the season, the yellowing, collapsed leaves were normal.

It was a moment of revelation! I do not remember the exact moment when I learned about the hibernation stage of bulbs and the plants known as “herbaceous perennials”, but I certainly remember when that guy learned. We talked some more about the strange ways of plants, and he was relieved to know that he had not killed his beautiful flowers.

Plenty of other flowers follow a similar life pattern. All of the spring bulbs (tulip, hyacinth, crocus, for example), Bee Balm, Anise Hyssop, Phlox, Bleeding Hearts, Trout Lily, Blood Root, and many more beautiful flowering plants do the same disappearing act for at least part of the year.

However, not many of our commonly grown food plants are herbaceous perennials, disappearing for awhile before returning. Asparagus is one. Horseradish is another.

Fennel does that same magic act, too. A few weeks ago, all you could see of my fennel plants was some bare, brown sticks poking out of the ground. Right now, in the garden, the fennel is starting to show some dense feathery growth around the base of those sticks. They are reborn! Magic.

The answer to “when can I start seeds for my spring garden” depends a lot on how much of a gambler you are. If you have seeds, seed-starting materials, and space with lighting galore, then anytime is probably a good time.

If, like me, you have limited space, lighting, and materials, following a more conservative schedule may be a better choice.

For spring veggies and early flowers, my first planting usually begins in mid-to late February. That is when I plant seeds for English peas (and sugar-snaps), spinach, dill, and early flowers like larkspur outdoors in the garden. That is also usually when I set some seed potatoes in a single layer in a lighted space indoors (sunny window can work) so they begin to sprout for mid-March planting.

The problem with planting earlier is that some seeds, peas especially, will rot in the ground if they are too cold and damp for too long. When they do come up, though, they can survive some very cold weather. So can little spinach seedlings. The dill and larkspur won’t come up until later, but they do better when planted early outdoors. That is just their way.

Seeds for other spring crops may come up in a stretch of warmish weather if planted outside very early, but if we get a return to actual winter, with temperatures dropping below 20 degrees F for more than a couple of hours, the little seedlings are not likely to survive. Spinach seedlings can take the cold, and it is possible that kale and collards can, too, but lettuces are less happy with such very cold nights, and new carrot seedlings might not make it, either.

Since the weather can still turn very cold in February, I keep an eye on the forecasts before planting even the most cold-hardy of veggies outside.

For most of my spring veggies, I wait until the first of March to start seeds indoors. That list usually includes lettuces, parsley, and beets. When these little plants are big enough, I move them outside for a few hours each day to help them adjust to life out-of-doors before transplanting them into the garden. By the end of March, they should be ready for that move.

Seeds for peppers often are slow to come up, and I tend to start some peppers, for summer, in the first or second week of March, too. Carrots can be planted outside at around the same time.

Tomatoes are a lot speedier to develop than peppers, so I tend to wait an extra week or two before starting any of those.

(Photo at top is of basil seedlings, started as seeds at the end of March, 2016, for sharing in May with other gardeners. Photo by Amygwh.)

Garden planning, for all kinds of gardens, needs to take into account a long list of factors for best success. The sun/shade conditions available, common disease and pest issues in the area, and the local climate zone are examples of what we gardeners might want to consider.

The garden’s multiple purposes are also important. Is it going to provide cut flowers to bring inside? Is it providing herbs or vegetables?

Another consideration is whether we are going to save seeds produced in this year’s garden to use in growing plants for next year’s garden. Planning for seed saving will help a gardener choose good varieties for that purpose, and also help the gardener know how many plants to grow.

Seed Savers Exchange keeps information about seed saving online, to help gardeners get started. I also, though, will be giving a presentation about Planning for Seed Saving next week, on Wednesday, January 28, at the first 2017 meeting of Cobb County’s Community Gardens group.

The group is a kind of “advisory committee,” that meets four times each year. Its members are community garden leaders, members, and supporters who work together to keep Cobb County’s community gardens vibrant, productive, and fun.

At the meetings, we (I am a member) share notes about what is going well in our gardens and gardening communities, and we help each other with problems that may have arisen. It is a great group!

The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m., at the Cobb Water System Training Lab classroom, at 662 South Cobb Drive, Marietta. You don’t have to be a member to come to the presentation, and it is always educational to hear what is going on in other people’s gardens.

Choosing what to grow in a small veggie plot is a fun part of gardening. Right now, seed companies are sending out catalogs, and garden centers are setting up their seed displays. Pictures in the catalogs and on the seed packets all look so good!

With so many wonderful seed options, how can we make choices that will be good for our own gardens?

Besides choosing crops that our families will actually enjoy eating, it helps to find out which varieties do well in our region, and it also helps to choose varieties that have been developed to stay smaller than the full-size versions.

Smaller crops can be easier to tend, since they stay “in bounds”, and a lot of the smaller varieties have a shorter time to maturity. ‘Little Gem’ Romaine lettuce is just 6 inches tall (super cute!) and should be ready to harvest as a full head in just 46 days. ‘Tom Thumb’ Butterhead lettuce is another small variety, taking 60-65 days to reach full size, and it has done very well in my own garden.

Clues to mature size are often right in the name of the variety. Look for the words like spacemaster, bush, gem, little, baby, and jewel.

Of course, some veggies are naturally space-saving, all on their own. Carrots, radishes, and beets, for example, which only need a square of space 3-to-5 inches across per plant to grow well, can all be good choices for gardeners working with smaller spaces.

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